Introductory Lecture “The Jerusalem Day” – 05.31.11
Posted on May 31st, 2011
Question: How will the changes happen in the education system—by the initiative of the government from above, or pressure from the masses from below?
Answer: Leaders are only afraid for their “seats” and nothing else. If the masses come out to the streets and start shaking those chairs, and they aren’t just setting cars on fire but starting to making more serious actions, then the leaders start listening to their demands. In the end, they will have to agree to them. The question is: Will we be able to offer them our explanation of the necessary measures? We have to try to do that as much as we can.
One way or another, we have to get through to the leaders, but from both sides: from below, through the masses that go out onto the street, and from above directly. After all, we are talking about a global study of the world, about changes in education, and about building a worldwide system of upbringing in which everyone will study while receiving a specific salary for it, the means for sustenance.
This learning will take place instead of work, but in reality it will become people’s work in the spiritual sense. Every person will attract Light to the extent of his forces and capabilities, and this will be his reward. After all, the Light holds all of the abundance there can possibly be.
How many people are required to provide the vital necessities for all of the earth’s inhabitants? Clothing, food, construction, service—everything that’s necessary within the framework of a normal existence? For example, people will work for half a day and will study for half a day. And this will be done by everyone.
However, this can only be achieved through the leaders, or more precisely, through the public opinion, through people who think, including scientists, sociologists, political scientists, and all those who rise above the mass, but not too high. After all, the very top is occupied by the “destroyers,” whereas we are talking primarily about the university circles.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/26/11, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”
Unity is not equalization, but mutual inclusion. The method of education is based on this idea as well: Everyone is unique, and hence children develop through discussions that allow them to learn other children’s opinions no matter how numerous these opinions are.
Thanks to this method, each child absorbs from the others, becomes imbued with their way of being, and grows to be even more unique. The child receives from everyone else and grows on that, developing his own properties.
This is what we want to achieve with our method of education. People unite correctly, making a contact, communicating with each other, and build a human society themselves, a society which is based on mutual inclusion of each into all and all into each. As a result, everybody’s uniqueness flourishes even more.
To do this, children conduct discussions, which we direct and manage just a little bit. Meanwhile, everybody has an opportunity to speak out, experience the role of a judge and defendant, advocate and prosecutor. We develop a human being in each child only through mutual inclusion.
Then, from year to year, children will grow more different from each other. The difference between them will strike one’s eye every time, but so what? Namely this will give power to the following unification. That’s the entire point: Without suppressing the individual, we build a community from great personalities.
Thereby the method of Kabbalah allows us to use the entire creation. Otherwise, we simply destroy a person, reducing him to a cog in the machine, whereas in fact, each detail, conscious of its indispensability, should put this machine into action.
[42866]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/12/2011, “Peace in the World”
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Education is a special topic. It is interesting that people almost did not think about education over the course of human history. A little person grew among the grown-ups and learned from them. Parents did not need to take special classes to learn how to raise their children. Like animals, we practiced regular and natural education.
Kindergartens and schools appeared during the industrialization period, when people started working in factories, and mothers also had to start working. Until then, most children grew naturally at home.
In reality, nothing is more important than education. No wonder we are now experiencing a crisis in this area. People never thought that they needed to follow a certain system in education and that the growing generation requires a sensible approach. Take us: Who teaches us? What criteria do they follow, which method, which program? Instead of receiving education in schools, we receive knowledge.
Overall, schools appeared when a need arose to bring peasants to the cities, so they needed to be taught elementary grammar and arithmetic in order to work with simple industrial machines. People needed to be taught to read and understand manuals. This was the beginning of the two hundred year old institution of school for the masses.
We envision general education as the continuation of the ancient human wisdom. However, essentially, people only began to rise above the animate level in the nineteenth to twentieth century.
People never gave a serious thought to proper education. What should a person become when he or she grows up? Do we turn him into a Human? These questions are ignored even now. We send a child to math, physics, or computer specialized schools, without thinking of the individual this person will become. Who cares about the individual? What matters is to find a good job in our “bourgeois” life.
Moreover, this is happening because humanity has not come to a consensus, a common opinion of what it means “to be a human.” We tell the child: “Be good to others so they will enjoy dealing with you.” This is what out education mostly comes down to.
The problem is that society does not demand a connection between people. And today, once we have come to a general crisis, the crisis of education especially stands out. This is because the young generation is new souls with new demands of the new world. We call them the “Indigo children,” stuff them with Ritalin, and think that they do not understand us. In reality, we are the ones who do not understand them; we are the ones lagging behind life. We were not taught to understand these children.
They demand development at a new level. Similarly, a person whose point in the heart awakens ceases to understand other people who live a regular, “corporeal” life. And our children also look at us and do not understand: “What are you living for? We do not want your life, we are not willing to live like you and are incapable of it.”
If we want to find a connection with them, we need to introduce a new kind of education. And even though we fall short of this role, being the transitional stage before the new generation, we still need to complete this stage to the end.
[40961]
From Lesson 6, WE! Convention 4/3/2011
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We found the topic of education to be in high demand within the framework of mass dissemination of Kabbalah. Suddenly, this channel has opened wide before us. Everyone is ready to forge relationships and listen: “Just advise us about what to do with the growing generation which we are unable to approach.”
Our children are a completely different story: Judging by their questions and answers and their attitude towards life, we can see that they represent a completely different generation. We have put a lot of effort into them; let us hope that this will serve all of us.
We have named the upcoming year the year of education. We have dedicated the third hour of the morning lesson to developing the principles which we will use to formulate the method. We are beginning to document the materials, so you will soon be receiving them in all the different languages.
Moreover, it is very important to involve children in our website for children, try to push them, give them prizes for participation. We need to develop a connection between them—this guarantees success. We bring them closer to Kabbalistic sources and teach them unity in a simple way. At the same time, the Light flows through these sources, and we discover how advanced our beloved children are.
For example, in Israel 13-14 year-old children enroll in college level classes. Colleges are not ready to accept them to study psychology, assuming that these are regular children, so they will study education, communications, and other disciplines. This way they will finish high school and have a college diploma at the age of 17-18. And they are ready for this.
Moreover, our mentors and some parents will study together with them. We are referring to an education diploma, and education is our specialty. We need to become teachers, educators of the entire world. I hope that you will take this as good advice.
We are discussing joint programs with the UN and UNESCO. Over the course of the year, you will receive many books, films, and educational games from us. We will try to create a large children’s portal on the Internet, designed for gradual advancement, as well as a virtual community, which will enable the children to feel much more united than we are. The entire world will be at their disposal for them to unite around the world, armed with the method, knowledge, and education and to become people in the full sense of the word.
[40955]
From Lesson 6, WE! Convention 4/3/2011
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Question: What are our plans regarding the education of Palestinian children?
Answer: We have students from Arabic countries and other Muslim regions. I do not see any difference between them and all the others. We have students from the Palestinian Authority, Iran; during the lessons, we receive questions from people from Syria and other places. One of the international meetings about educational issues within the UNESCO framework was organized by a Saudi prince, and we received a personal invitation from him.
Education is a world problem, and through it, we can establish connections over countries and differences. Of course, there is the question of religion, and this will remain a source of deep separation between people until, in the words of Baal HaSulam, we establish a single religion, that of love and bestowal.
Baal HaSulam writes in his article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose” that there is no other religion besides love. Everything else is customs that people have accepted. Let us hope that the different crises together with our dissemination will make the world understand that they need to rise above the differences.
The education that we are developing is common for everyone, it does not have any specificity. So I think that as soon as our Arabic brothers will want to accept it and will be ready for it, there will be a method waiting for them: We are preparing it in Arabic as well.
Moreover, since the times of Abraham, Islam has a movement called Sufism. I have met its representatives many times. Naturally, they understand what it is we are talking about, and we can work with them to disseminate the new method of education.
The problem is that radical Islamic circles do not recognize them: Sufis have been exiled from Arabic countries and live in the US and in England. I hope that this position will change because nature prevails regardless. We must go through these stages—The Zohar describes this particular course of development. Soon the transition period will be over, and people will feel that they exist in a global world.
[41081]
From Lesson 6, WE! Convention 4/3/2011
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Question: How can a person know that he is ready to be a teacher, and are there classes for this?
Answer: First of all, a person must have a disposition to teach, meaning not to lecture (every person can do this egoistically), but to explain, to observe how the student works and whether he accepts the teacher’s opinion. A teacher also needs to possess the ability to learn from the students, adapt and explain according to the changes.
I do not think that every person is capable of doing this; however, there are many areas in education. Some people do not like to speak and explain things, but suddenly prove themselves as good practical leaders. They play with the children, organize groups, and take them on field trips.
Our education is different in the way that we, primarily, want to teach the children about life. We show them museums, factories, and hospitals, although this, of course, depends on their age. They become acquainted with the operations of an airport, railway station, and bank. We make plans with the managers of a facility ahead of time, and when the children arrive, they are explained the production process.
We explain to them where they are going to ahead of time. Once the children return, they sit together in a circle and discuss the things they understood, how a certain mechanism operates and its purpose, and so on. We want them to know everything about life: how restaurants, hospitals, factories, and zoos operate. They take notes during the field trip, and then they write an essay and discuss it together with their teachers. This expands their world view.
We do many things within the framework of mutual agreement. When someone gets in a fight, argues, or has a misunderstanding, this is discussed among everyone. Sometimes we even have a mock trial: We assign children to be the judge, the attorney, the jury, the witnesses, and the audience. Roles change next time around.
This way every child learns to see himself or herself through the eyes of others: how a judge, the prosecutor, the audience, and others see him or her. A child begins to develop and see a wider world than his narrow view.
There are other examples, but the key element is to have a discussion in a circle. There is no such thing that children sit in class and look at the teacher: Everyone is equal in a circle, including the teachers.
The teacher lowers himself to the common level and remains among the children, without standing out. He manages them in such an unnoticeable way that they do not perceive it. And we teach them to be responsible: judge, defend, accuse. Children have an enormous ability to absorb, and we must use it.
Any person able to teach or manage a group, prepare material, or develop the method can be a teacher. We need different professionals to work with children, both boys and girls. Usually, they study separately, but sometimes we combine them.
[41084]
From Lesson 6, WE! Convention 4/3/2011
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